Almost 3,000 sewage warnings across England as Storm Darragh hits

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1. Sewage has been dumped into waterways in almost 3,000 separate locations in England over the past 48 hours.

   The alerts come as Storm Darragh hit Ireland and the British Isles which will likely overwhelm sewage networks across the country.

   According to real-time data provided by nine of England’s water companies – and compiled by the Rivers Trust – firms discharged waste from 1,524 overflow points on Saturday morning, with a further 1,391 locations dumping sewage during the previous 48 hours at the time of writing.

   United Utilities – which provides water and wastewater services for the North West – was the worst-performing firm with 36 per cent (807) of their locations dumping sewage water into rivers, lakes and the sea within the previous 48 hours.

   Firms covering the west of England reported sewage dumps at 31 per cent (1,116) of their locations in the previous 48 hours, compared to 18 per cent (1,981) across the rest of the country.

   Storm Darragh hit the UK on Saturday morning and will roll into Sunday, bringing heavy rain and wind gusts of more than 90mph. The Met Office issued a rare red “danger to life” warning for wind, covering much of the Welsh coast and northern Somerset and Devon.

   Amber warnings for wind and rain were also issued for a larger stretch of the UK’s west coast, covering Cornwall up to southern Scotland and Northern Ireland. These are in place between 1am and 9pm on Saturday.

   Rainfall of 80-90mm is possible by Saturday evening, the Met Office said, which is about half a month’s rainfall in one day.

   A further 55mm of rain fell in parts of Cumbria and the North West since Friday afternoon, while central Wales and Northern Ireland were set to be worst affected on Saturday – both of which were badly affected by flooding during Storm Bert last week.

   Most of Britain’s sewage network is designed as a “combined system”, which allows wastewater to be transported to treatment plants in the same pipes as rainwater.

2. Hard to believe we live in a G7 country.

3. Well, and?

   There are zero repercussions for the CEO’s except more bonuses.

4. We’re screwed on the south west coast then

5. A national disgrace. 

6. This is normal when there is too much flow to handle with the level of storm water, the sites have a full flow to treatment – beyond that it gets diverted to storm tanks to be treated later. When they’re full, where do you think it should go?

7. What a shitstorm

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